What to Do?

In industrialized northern Italy last week, Allied forces found a different breed of Italian.

In the south, peace-loving peasant farmers indifferently accepted German occupation. In the north, tough-fibered workers fought back fiercely. They got arms, formed resistance squads called partisans (no relation to Yugoslav Partisans). They disrupted German supplies, killed Nazis. When the Nazis retreated before U.S.-British troops, some partisans used their guns for looting, others for anti-Fascist vengeance in Rome (see cut).

Militarily, the partisans were giving the Allies much help behind German lines. Daily, General Sir Harold R. L. G. Alexander urged them on. The Allies supplied them with arms. To crack down ruthlessly on partisans in liberated areas might make those still fighting the Nazis quit. But AMG was duty-bound to keep law and order in Free Italy, had a directive to give all Fascists a fair trial. Long bedeviled by the critics of its Italian policies, the AMG had another Hobson's choice to make.

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